This needs to go in the Sci-tech watch department for UD: Not directly relevant to ID debates, but a glimpse at the wonders of our world that are well worth pondering. END

This is Thanksgiving week here in the United States, and one of the things for which we at UD are most thankful is our News Desk.  UD’s mission statement statement and goal is “serving the intelligent design community,” and nowhere is that goal accomplished more than through the News Desk’s tireless efforts, especially the efforts of our foremost news hound, Denyse O’Leary. We would like to take a moment to recognize that last Friday the News Desk published its 10,000th article.  Congratulations and well done!

Prominent atheist John W. Loftus gives us an example of a common atheist argument from the size of the universe when he writes: I think it’s [i.e., the vast size of the universe] even more damaging when it comes to an omnipotent God who supposedly created the universe for the specific purpose of gaining the affections of people on this lone planet of ours. If this is what he desired (for some irrational egotistical reason) he could have simply created us on a flat disk in a much smaller universe like the one the ancients believed existed. This argument is a hot mess, a mishmash of factual errors,* self-serving assumptions and faulty logic.  But let us set most of that Read More ›

From Laurie Sanders at Science News: Sperm from stressed-out dads can carry that stress from one generation to another. “But one question that really hasn’t been addressed is, ‘How do dad’s experiences actually change his germ cell?’” Jennifer Chan, a neuroendocrinologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said November 13 in Washington, D.C., at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Now, from a study in mice, Chan and her colleagues have some answers, and even hints at ways to stop this stress inheritance. More. Humans have similar structures to mice. Serious findings might explain a lot. How about, growing personal anxiety in the face of reduced external threats? Remember when Darwinians were ridiculing the idea of inheritance of acquired characteristics? Read More ›

Wayne Rossiter, author of Shadow of Oz: Theistic Evolution and the Absent God, draws our attention to this BioLogos post by British evangelical writer and editor Robin Parry: God is More Than an Intelligent Designer The problem with Intelligent Design (ID) is its tendency to look for God (or simply a “designer”) in the gaps of scientific explanations. So-called irreducible complexity, for instance, is seen as evidence of this “designer” because science cannot (in principle, we are told) explain it in terms of natural processes. But if future science did actually explain any alleged instances of irreducible complexity, then such instances would cease to be evidence of the “designer”. The problem here is that the “designer”—which almost every ID advocate Read More ›

  A new book critiquing theistic evolution is hitting the shelves. But meanwhile, a Catholic book along the same lines, Aquinas and Evolution by Michael Chaberek, OP, is performing a much-needed service: Helping people understand that Catholicism is not a branch of naturalist atheism. To listen to some Catholic evolutionists, we might find it hard to distinguish. Brief excerpt from Chaberek: Thomistic critics of ID reject ID for “philosophical reasons” and adopt the Darwinian explanations for the “scientific reasons.” But this means that they fight the alleged mechanistic reductionism of intelligent design and, at the same time, they accept the real and quite blatant reductionism of the Darwinian theory. Indeed, there is no greater misunderstanding of life and no greater reductionism in biology Read More ›

David Snoke has announced a meeting on “natural evil” organized by the Christian Scientific Society at Biola U, January 26-27: On Friday night, we will have a debate between David Snoke (me) and Mike Keas on “Are predatory animals a result of the Fall?” (Mike: yes; David: no). Saturday afternoon, we will have four speakers addressing issues on the general topic of natural evil: 1:00 PM. Non-Empirical Influences on Evolutionary Theory and the Principle of Plenitude.” Dr. Cornelius Hunter, author of Darwin’s God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil; Darwin’s Proof, and Science’s Blind Spot. 2:00 PM. “The Human Genome: ENCODED by Design.” Dr. Fazale Rana, Vice President of Research and Apologetics, Reasons to Believe 3:00 PM. “The Tragic History Read More ›

From Tyler O’Neil at PJ Media: A former executive at Google has filed paperwork with the IRS to establish an official religion of technology. This religion doesn’t just worship scientific progress, but artificial intelligence itself, with the goal of creating a godhead. The new church of AI will aim “to develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead [to] contribute to the betterment of society,” according to IRS documents. The non-profit religious organization would be called “Way of the Future” (WOTF). More. Making a god is actually not a new idea. Cf The Golden Calf. You can easily find out what your god is up to and control Read More ›

A celebration of creation: The Riot and the Dance is a two part nature/science documentary, showcasing the vast and beautifully intricate planet on which we live. Produced in a fully cinematic style, the film presents a wide variety of ingeniously designed creatures from around the world in a way that will fascinate audiences of any age. Through a vividly powerful experience the audience is intended to develop a greater understanding of and appreciation for the Creator’s workmanship and personality. The documentary focuses on some of the world’s celebrity critters (mega fauna), but also draws attention to some of the often overlooked inhabitants of the everyday. From slugs to sharks to vipers and elephants, Dr. Gordon Wilson attempts to open eyes Read More ›

From Denyse O’Leary (O’Leary for News) at Evolution News & Views: State religion? You, reader, object (of course): That scenario is not plausible! The theories are not believable! No? In the 20th century, Marxist economic theories became a state religion. These theories were propounded and enforced for decades, and dissenters were punished, despite the fact that mass starvation was a common outcome. Hunger was predictable, predicted, and widely known. Thinkers naturally assumed that evidence and reason would prevail over enforcement and dogma. But when evidence is rejected, reason has little to work with. Eventually, reason does prevail but much else prevails meanwhile. And in that particular case, great scientists such as Einstein, Godel, and Lakatos were surprisingly complicit, knowingly or Read More ›

Language specialist Norbert Francis seems to think creationism played a role, as he writes at Quillette: In the aftermath of the persecution of biology professor Bret Weinstein at Evergreen State College, we need to pause and look back. With the Higher Superstition exposé by Gross and Levitt in 1994, many of us assumed that the postmodern fashion would begin to fade. This prediction was wrong. This has prompted me to reflect on a similar suppression of academic freedom that passed virtually unnoticed years ago, when world-renowned Hopi language scholar, Ekkehart Malotki[*], was censored and vilified by the same inquisitorial thinking proliferating once more on American campuses. Far from fading, it is becoming entrenched and the current science establishment is either Read More ›

Structuralism just means that what can really happen in evolution is probably governed by physics and chemistry, rather than by biologist suggesting why one outcome or another is, in a Darwinian sense, more fit (Darwinsplaining). Explanations that fit a constantly shifting theory are easy to make up after the fact. Real explanations are hard work. From Suzan Mazur at HuffPost: A mini-exhibit in Amsterdam of D’Arcy Thompson themes set up for the public to view by Dutch academics who recently held a private meeting on these subjects, seems clearly anticlimactic to the rich display offered the public at the centenary celebration of Thompson’s On Growth and Form book last month in Scotland. … It could have been a far livelier Read More ›

Here is an example: A friend asked, why do so many pop science articles on the widespread problem of loneliness begin with some jaw about at how loneliness evolved. This item at The Atlantic gives a sense of it: As social animals, we depend on others for survival. Our communities provide mutual aid and protection, helping humanity to endure and thrive. “We have survived as a species not because we’re fast or strong or have natural weapons in our fingertips, but because of social protection,” said John Cacioppo, the director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. Early humans, for example, could take down large mammals only by hunting in groups. “Our strength is Read More ›

Philip Cunningham draws our attention to “New records set up with “Screws of Light””: In principle, twisted light can carry an arbitrary large amount of information per photon. This is in contrast to the polarization of light, which is limited to one bit per photon. For example, data rates of up to 100 terabits per second, which correspond to about 120 Blu-Ray discs per second, have already been achieved under laboratory conditions. The transmission under realistic conditions, however, is still in its infancy. In addition to transmission over short distances in special fiber optics, transmission of such light beams over free space, required for instance for satellite communication, was limited to three kilometers so far; achieved by the same Viennese Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: The impulse to be kind to strangers was long thought to be unique to humans, but research on bonobos suggests our species is not as exceptional in this regard as we like to think. Famously friendly apes from Africa’s Congo Basin, bonobos will go out of their way to help a stranger get food even when there is no immediate payback, researchers show. What’s more, they help spontaneously, without having to be asked first. Who writes this copy? Many intelligent animals will assist strangers without being asked (see the self-taught therapy cat vid below), provided they perceive no loss or threat in doing so. Turtles, not known for high intelligence, will right each other, though they can’t right Read More ›